Otto levinger



(N0 Mooiel.) P 0. LEVINGER.

SPOON.

No. 438,379. Patented Oct. 14, 1890.

M868? M073- dZ/lf' W75 0229.3 61

ww I I, MW 7 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OTTO LEVINGER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SPOON.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 438,379, dated October 14, 1890.

Application filed April 24, 1890. Serial No. 349,386. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OTTO LEVINGER, of the city and county of New York, in the State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Spoons, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The principal object of this invention is to alford greater facility for the eating of soup from the tip of the bowl of a spoon. The custom or fashion of eating from the side of the spoon-bowl, which is much less easy and convenient than eating from the point; thereof, is believed to have originated through the difficulty experienced in directing the tip of an ordinary spoon toward the mouth without inconvenience to ones neighbor at table by the flexure and lateral movement of the arm,the person eating thereby having to sacrifice his own ease and comfort to the convenience of his neighbor.

This invention consists in the construction of the handle of the spoon with a series of bends having such directions, as hereinafter described, relatively to the bowl that soup maybe easily taken into the bowl at the side thereof from a plate on a table and introduced to the mouth from the tip of the bowl without any lateral movement or with only a scarcelyperceptible lateral movement of the arm.

Figure 1 in the drawings is'a plan of aspoon constructed according to my invention,showing also the hand in which the spoon is held in use at a table. Fig. 2 is a side View of the spoon, the spoon-bowl being represented in the direction in which it is pointed with little deviation toward the person while in use.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in both the figures.

A designates the bowl of the spoon, which may be and is represented of ordinary shape.

B and O designate the handle. The shank of the handle, which is straight, or nearly so, is raised somewhat above the bowl as viewed sidewise of the spoon, as in Fig. 2, in which respect it ('oes not or need not diflier from the handle of an ordinary spoon; but as viewed from above, looking down on the bowl, as in Fig. 1, the said shank is at an angle of about from one hundred and fifteen degrees to one hundred and twenty-five degrees to a line passing through the center of the bowl to the tip The shank thus arranged at an angle connects with the bowl by a gentle curve, as at a, Fig. 1.

The head O or broad part of the handle is, as viewed in Fig. 1, so arranged relatively to the shank B that a line drawn through its center will be at an angle of about from one hundred and twenty degrees to one hundred and thirty degrees to the line of the length of the shank. The shape of the headmay be varied or may be of substantially the same form as that of the heads of spoons in present use. It should, however, be such that it may be firmly grasped in the right hand, with the thumb placed above and lengthwise of it and the first and second fingers below or behind it, as shown in Fig. 1, the tip of the thumb being at the tip 0 of the head. The thumb being then pointed directly forward from the body, the tip of the bowl A is directly toward the mouth or center of the body of the person holding the spoon.

A spoon constructed as above described and held in the manner set forth may be used at table to take soup from a plate and carry it to the month without any lateral movement of the arm at or above the elbow, the only movements necessary beingthose of the elbow-joint and wrist. By dropping the forearm from the elbow the spoon is brought into the plate, and by a turn of the wrist the soup is taken into the spoon at the outer side 6, after which by the raising of the forearm the bowl is brought with its tip to the mouth, and in this way soup can be eaten from the tip without any possible inconvenience to ones neighbor at the most crowded table.

I do not claim, broadly, the'invention of a spoon having the bowl at an obtuse angle to the handle; but

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A spoon having the shank of the handle at an obtuse angle to a line passing lengthwise through the center of the bowl, and having the head of the handle bent at an obtuse angle to the shank, substantially as herein set I Witnesses:

F. G. BARRY, L. M. EoBER'r. 

